(PS9-C65) Is Time Since the Last Self-injury Related to Expectancies and Beliefs About Self-injury?

Title: Is Time Since the Last Self-Injury Related to Expectancies and Beliefs about Self-Injury?
 
Authors: Rashanna Turner, Abigail Evans, Manfredo Flores Cruz, M.A., & Nicholas L. Salsman, PhD., ABPP, Xavier University

Abstract 
Problem: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is often referred to as deliberate, self-inflicted bodily damage, without the intent to die (Cipriano et al., 2017). The increasing prevalence rate of NSSI among adolescents and adults is concerning due to higher prevalence of suicidal behaviors and mental health problems among those who self-injure (Lloyd et al., 2018). Questions remain about what may be associated with the amount of time between self-injuries. This analysis examines if expectancies and beliefs about self-injury may be correlated with time between self-injury episodes.
 

Method:   Community-dwelling adults were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service (MTurk) and completed The Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory (DSHI), the Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Expectancy Questionnaire (NEQ), and the Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Beliefs Scale (NSIBS). One hundred and twenty two individuals identified that they had engaged in self-injury at some point in their life, with 67 reporting self-injury in the last two months and 55 reporting a longer time since their last self-injury. These two groups were compared on the Affect Regulation subscale of the NEQ, which measures expectancies that self-injury will improve affect regulation, the Self-Punishment subscale of the NSIBS, which measures beliefs about the role that self-punishment plays in self-injury. 
 

Results: Analyses indicated that there was not a significant difference on the Self-Punishment subscale of the NSIBS among individuals who have engaged in NSSI in the past two months than those who have for a longer period of time. Further analyses indicated that individuals who had self-injured in the last two months had significantly higher scores on the NEQ Affect Regulation subscale. 
 

Discussion: These analyses indicate that individuals who have more recent self-injury have higher expectations that it will help them with affect regulation, than those who have a longer time since their last self-injury. Future research may look at moderators of this relationship, such as if use of other healthy emotion regulation strategies may decrease frequency and recency of self-injury even when there are expectations that self-injury may help with emotion regulation.